End of month view - April

This month's post should be called "the garden awakens".  Finally, after months of unseasonably cold, wet, windy and downright miserable weather, we have been treated to some warm days of spring sunshine.  The garden has responded - and it is as though everything is bursting into bud, blossom, and flower.  The last of the early spring bulbs are putting on a show, and the late spring shrubs and flowers are ready to burst!

Although the early flowering plums and cherry trees have gone over - there are still more showing off their lovely blossom.  Our 4 in 1 grafted cherry tree (ranier, bing, lapin, and one other that I can't remember) is loaded with delicate white blossom.

Tiny saxifrage flowers line the gravel pathway

 ...and the rhododendron is ready to bloom any day now.

Huge buds on the grapevine signal the beginning of its annual growth spurt.

Forget-me-nots (myosotis) basking under the brick in the sunny front border, have produced their sweet blue flowers.  These escaped my transplanting aspirations, and appear to have grown extra tall to compensate!

These fancy double narcissus are some of the bulbs remaining in bloom throughout the garden.

Flowers in many shades of blue and lilac blue (my favourite!) can be found in the garden at this time of year.

The new growth on the native ferns unfurls in fascinating curly fronds.

I found a checkered lily (fritillaria) growing happily in the border with the roses.

The pond goldfish and koi are swimming up to the surface, hungry and ready to be fed.



Not too many views of the front border this time around.  Little has changed other than the daffodils beginning to die back, and lots of new growth on the roses.  The rather chilly (and a bit mildewed) cosmos can be seen in the back, and the newy transplanted nigella in the front.  I had no choice but to plant them out very early on thanks to the need to make more space indoors for even more tender seedlings than these.  The green loopy plant supports are to prevent the cats from taking a short-cut through the fragile young plants - and will be removed shortly!

More lovely blue - this time one of many scilla scattered in the woodland.

Finally, a view of the erythronium self-seeded in the woodland garden - demonstrating once again that nature is the finest garden designer in these parts. 

This is the view of the garden that I will carry with me for the next few weeks as I venture out with my mother for a little vacation - the chance to re-connect with family & friends, see new sights (hopefully some gardens too!), and experience a world away from ours.  I leave Artgarden in the trusty hands of our other family members, and I will be interested and excited to see how much everything has grown when we return.